Hello all,
In the process of removing the drive shaft the stub shaft from the differential pulled out damaging my differential seal. At first I thought it was pulling hard just from being stuck but then it all popped out. Then I went ahead and got a new seal to replace the damaged one. But the problems started when I removed the (outer bearing/seal retainer cap). I did think ahead and mark the cap with paint pen so I could properly tighten it back down, but in the hurried confusion I forgot to remark it after running it threw the parts washer. Thankfully I only did this to one side. The other side i removed with a ground down chisel and broke off one of the nubs i later used this as a reference point because it also was run threw the parts washer. I promptly made a spanner tool that worked much better and did not break any more nubs.

My question is how can I reset the preload on the second cap to the correct spot.

Question number 2: while i had bearing cap out on the passengers side i also pulled the cap from the drivers side witch caused the differential to fall down in its case. I aligned the shaves by eye and put the bearing cap back on. My question to this is: will this be O.K. or damage the differential?

Any help would be very much appreciated, Thanks in advance.

johnegg

03-30-2013 02:59 PM

you are in a pickle.

there is a process for setting the correct position of the front diff . i do not know exactly what it is but it is a bit complicated and involves a bit of trial and error to get just the right position. then after you get it right, you tighten one side and loosen the other a specific n umber of turns.

you only have a few choices, take it to a shop, do the best you can and hope, or replace the trans.

i guess by now you have figured out that you should have
1/ done one side at a time.
2/ counted the number of turns as you removed the cap so you could re-install the exact number to the exact position.

good luck

99-outback

12-23-2013 11:38 PM

all patched up and running great thanks for the help. yes live and learn